I'm a simple emigrant and I don't believe in mysticism

I keep hearing a fast knock at home. I already thought it might be the house settling, or the neighbor cooking, or the dog scratching and banging its tail on the floor. But wait, aren’t there too many schnitzels for that person, and I’ve never even seen dogs in my house. I joked to myself that there’s only one explanation left—a poltergeist. And then it hit me, this is a German word after all. Poltern means to rumble, to make noise, and Geist means spirit. Remember such a character? A ghost that throws dishes, moves furniture, makes a racket and creates chaos. It turns out that such phenomena were first described precisely in Germany. In the 16th century, German chronicles described houses where “spirits rumbled, threw stones and kept people from sleeping.” These stories appeared so often that priests and theologians started offering explanations. Of course, they had one answer for everything: demons, punishing sins. Those who were more charitable said it was simply an unhappy house spirit. One of the most enigmatic poltergeists resided in an ordinary law office in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim, in 1967. At first, the staff noticed that dozens of lines began receiving calls simultaneously, even though the lines were disconnected. Then the office owner Sigmund Adam contacted the post office. They replaced all the phones, but on the very first day there was again an outgoing call that no one had made. And then another, and another. The phone bill skyrocketed several times, but no one could explain what was wrong. Then more bizarre things started happening: lamps exploded for no reason, paintings swayed, and the lights in the office turned on and off randomly. And all this time the office owner kept calling in technicians, but they shrugged and said everything was working properly. Everyone confirmed: they saw it too. The office became impossible to work in: clients scattered, and the staff were afraid to stay alone. Then professional scientists took up the case, including Professor Hans Bender, a renowned paranormal researcher. He arrived with a team, set up instruments, and began observing. Just a few days later he determined that the ghosts are noisy only when the office has a 19-year-old stenographer, Anna-Maria. A single mother with a heap of suppressed emotions, fears, anger and unresolved conflicts. To confirm the suspicions, all the staff were sent on vacation for a few days. Anna-Maria left first and, suddenly, everything stopped. But as soon as she returned—the poltergeist was back in full force. Bender watched her more closely and concluded that it is her intense stress that triggers psychokinetic energy, whatever that means, and that she is the one who affects the objects. Telekinesis, in short. The problem drew in everyone: from ghost hunters to physicists. The former claimed it was ghosts or telekinesis, while the latter argued it was a setup, with strings somewhere, and all of it was a mix of expectation, self-deception and tricks. But the fact remains: this case was investigated by engineers, scientists, journalists and the police, and to this day no one has given a hundred-percent explanation. And the problem was solved brilliantly: they fired the stenographer. And everything instantly stopped. Nevertheless, the case drew wide attention: newspaper articles, documentary films and even technical reports were published about it. Modern psychologists regard the Rosenheim poltergeist as an example of group self-suggestion and emotional tension in a closed group. It became the basis for modern research on “social echoes” and collective hallucinations, uniting neuroscience and cognitive psychology. So if there’s sudden noise in your apartment—check whether you might already be able to move objects with the power of thought. But there’s always a small chance it’s a German spirit come to check whether you’re sorting the trash correctly. #history